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Qual iricationy Hs 
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Candidates. for 
Misstonary'' 
Appointment 


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Prepared by Officers and Approved 
by the Prudential Committee 
of the American Board of 
Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions 


(Printed not Published] 
BOSTON, 1906 


& 


Intellectual Qualifications desired 
in Candidates for Mission- 
ary Appointment. 


In order to answer many inquiries 
raised in the minds of young people 
‘who ‘afé eoentemplating missionary 
work, the American Board has pre- 
pared the following statement as to 
the intellectual equipment sought for 
in missionary candidates. This is 
not a series of rules or enactments 
but a general declaration of what is 
desired in a fully trained candidate for 
missionary service under the Board. 
Special candidates are occasionally 
required for some distinctive place 
and service, but these are so mani- 
festly an exception that they are not 
mentioned here. Proper spiritual 
equipment is assumed in the cases 
under discussion. 

There are in general four distinct 
classes of foreign missionaries: 

2 


1. Ordained men or general mis- 
sionaries. 

2. Physicians, both men and wo- 
men. 

3. Wives. 

4. Single women. 


In addition to these, a few unor- 
dained men are appointed as business 
agents, industrial workers, and teach- 
ers. There is also an increasing call 
for trained nurses. 


As a general rule, it is expected 
that all applicants for missionary ser- 
vice shall have meritoriously com- 
pleted a full college course. This 
has not always been insisted upon in 
the case of the women, nor has it in 
the case of physicians. The increas- 
ing demands upon all missionaries 
render it more and more desirable 
that all shall be college trained. All 
appointments for every position are 
made for life service. There are no 
appointments of any kind for a term 
of years. Itshould be said, however, 
that in connection with some of the 
mission colleges, occasionally a col- 
lege graduate is employed for a term 


3 


service of from three to five years. 
Such are not ‘‘appointed’’ but simply 
““employed,’’ and the number needed 
is not large — only, upon an average, 
of one or two each year. 

There is practically no place for 
appointment under the Board of men 
who have completed only a college 
course. Most of the teachers in 
mission colleges are natives. All 
missionaries sent out for educational 
positions, require a more complete 
training than any ordinary college 
course can furnish. As a general 
rule, the regularly appointed mission- 
ary needs to have such a complete 
education, especially collegiate and 
theological, that he can fill any 
vacancy in the mission that is liable 
to occur; and take up any line of 
work that may be thrown upon him. 

I. Ordained Men. 

As the work of missions is primari- 
ly religious, it is of the greatest im- 
portance that the missionary sent out 
shall have secured the best possible 
training in Theology. Whatever else 
he may have had,— apart from medi- 

4 


cine,— this is essential. If one is to 
teach in a college, his influence will 
be stronger and his equipment for 
service more complete, if he is a 
graduate of a theological school. In 
fact, this is almost essential for the 
college work alone. But the chances 
are that the same men will need to 
take some work also in a theological 
school or with a theological class. 
In that case, a theological training is. 
indispensable. 


Biblical teaching is a part of all 
mission college work. ‘This must be 
done thoroughly and _ scientifically 
and requires scientific training in pre- 
paration. We can therefore say that 
all missionaries should have a college 
training, and all except doctors 
should have a thorough theological 
training as well. In many cases, 
post graduate work, after the theo- 
logical course, of from one to two 
years, is strongly advised. ‘There is 
no short-cut course for foreign mis- 
sionary work. The American Board 
does not appoint and send out assist- 
ants. All assistants are trained on 


5 


the field. The Board wants only 
leaders in every sense of the word. 
More and more our missionaries are 
forced to be directors and leaders of 
native leaders and organizers of mis- 
sionary operations. This work of 
organizing, directing and leading is 
demanded of every missionary in a 
greater or less degree. 

Il. Physicians. 

The missionary physician needs to 
stand at the head of his profession. 
Some of the reasons for this are: 

1. He is a mizsstonary physician 
who, by the practice of his profession, 
expects to exhibit the virtue and 
graces of Christianity. He should 
make the. best revelation possible of 
that for which Christianity stands, 
and this he can do only by being the . 
best possible physician and surgeon. 
A poor doctor must always be a poor 
professional exponent of a perfect 
religion. 

2. The missionary physician is 
usually locatedin a place remote from 
other physicians and is wholly de- 
pendent upon himself. He cannot 

6 


usually call in other physicians for 
consultation in emergency cases. He 
must make his own diagnosis and 
treat the case alone. The responsi- 
bility is heavy and the shoulders that 
bear it must needs be broad and 
strong. 

3. In most cases the missionary 
physician is the only medical help for 
the missionaries who come under his 
care. If he is only partially trained 
or indifferently equipped, precious 
missionary life is imperilled. 

4. The cases that come to a mis- 
sionary doctor cover almost every 
form of disease and accident known 
tomen. No case can be turned over 
toa specialist neighbor. Every suf- 
fering son of man must be helped to 
the limit of the power of the Chris- 
tian doctor who must be something 
of a specialist in every department of 
medicine and surgery. The mission- 
ary physician must treat diseases of 
the eye, throat, lungs, abdomen, 
nerves, and everything else, and be 
ready to perform a great variety of 
operations — and that, too, with only 

7 


native assistants, often not well 
trained. This requires, not only the 
broadest training and hospital experi- 
ence at the outset, but demands con- 
tinual reading and study. 


In view of these and other similar 
considerations, the one who expects 
to equip himself for foreign medical 
missionary service, should plan to 
take a complete college course, fol- 
lowed by a thorough medical course 
of not less than four years. When 
the medical course is completed, from 
one to two years of hospital practice 
of wide range is of supreme import- 
ance. When this course of study 
and practice is creditably finished, 
the candidate has a right to consider 
himself professionally equipped to 
enter upon his career as a medical 
missionary. Such a training ought 
to fit one for service in any country. 
Without such a course, no one can 
be fully equipped. 

There is a wrong impression preva- 
lent as to the relative value of the med- 
ical and the ordained missionary. 
Most Boards send out from eight to ten 

8 


ordained men to one physician and 
there is little prospect of a change in 
this proportion, The demand for 
medical missionaries must diminish 
as Christian native physicians are 
trained upon the field. The theologi- ~ 
cally trained men are most in demand 
all of the time. 


III. Wives. 


This is a more difficult subject to 
treat. The ‘‘wives’’ referred to, will 
be, for the most part, the companions 
of the ordained men and the medical 
missionaries. In order to be of the 
greatest service to their husbands 
and that they may be prepared to 
enter most fully into the work done 
by their husbands, a college course 
or its equivalent, is desirable. This 
is not insisted upon, but if a thorough 
intellectual equipment can be added 
to all other virtues, the value of 
future. service will be enhanced. It 
is always of value if the wife has had 
some experience and training in the 
care of the sick, and especially if she 
is familiar with the ordinary treat- 
ment of some of the diseases of 


9 


women and children. The wife’s 
work is to be primarily in and 
through the home. First she keeps 
her own home, in which the women 
of the country always find a hearty 
welcome, and then she carries some 
of the blessings of that home to the 
women who live all about her. The 
wife is pre-eminently a home builder, 
but always as a companion and co- 
worker with her husband. 

IV. Single Women. 

These comprise three classes, not 
always distinctly separated. 1. The 
evangelistic worker. 2. The teacher. 
3. The physician. For each class 
thorough mental training is essential. 
Many who have never had even the 
equivalent of a college course of train- 
ing have done and can do most effi- 
cient evangelistic work among the 
women of the East. It is imperative 
that all must master thoroughly the 
vernacular of the women among 
whom they work, and even to do 
this, a trained mind is essential. 
Let no college graduate think that 
her training is too thorough for this 


kind of work. 
10 


There are a great variety of teach- 
ing positions in the mission field. 
The grade of girls’ schools in all the 
East is continually rising. Many of 
these have now assumed college rank, 
and the missionary who takes a posi- 
tion in one of these institutions, re- 
quires a college degree and even post 
graduatestudy. Native female teach- 
ers in the lower schools are frequent- 
ly themselves college graduates, 
while most of the teachers in the 
primary and intermediate schools are 
trained native girls. The American 
missionary woman, who has charge 
of these teachers and assumes the 
general control of such schools, in 
order to hold her position and com- 
mand the full confidence and respect 
of the educated native teachers, 
should have a college training or its 
full equivalent. The necessity of 
such a training is becoming increas- 
ingly apparent. 

The woman missionary physician 
stands in the same need of a thorough 
medical training as is demanded for 
the male physician. No woman phy- 


11 


sician ought to contemplate medical 
work in the mission field upon a 
lower intellectual and _ professional 
equipment than is demanded for suc- 
cessful medical practice in the United 
States. 


Occasionally an industrial mission- 
ary is needed. For the most part the 
industrial workmen are raised up on 
the field, the missionary in charge of 
that department having charge also 
of other missionary work. Some of 
the most aggressive and successful 
industrial missionaries under the 
American Board have had the full 
college and theological courses and 
devote only a part of their time to the 
industrial problems. ‘They engage 
their skilled specialists and superin- 
tendents in the country. 


A few men have been appointed 
and sent out to the mission fields as 
business agents. These act as mis- 
sion treasurers and devote themselves 
very largely to the business side of 
missions, thus relieving the regular 
ordained missionaries. Such men 
keep the mission accounts, receive 


12 


and pay out mission funds, look after 
the construction of buildings, and 
transact, under the mission and in its 
name, much of the mission business. 


With rare exception no men are ap- 
pointed to teaching positions. Most 
of the teachers in mission colleges are 
trained natives. Their number should 
increase rather than diminish. Mis- 
sionaries in charge of educational 
institutions are necessarily fully 
equipped with a complete theological 
training. Occasionally, to a few of 
these colleges, a man is sent for a 
term of from three to five years as a 
teacher. In most instances a full 
college course has been regarded as 
adequate intellectual training for 
these places, but it is recognized that 
if to this a theological course is 
added, the teacher’s influence and 
power are largely increased. 


To some it may seem that these re- 
quirements are too severe, and that 
because of them many a good man 
and woman will be prevented from 
going into foreign missionary service. 
There is no doubt that if require- 

13 


ments were lower, many who are now 
detained at home, would go out. 
Experience has shown that in most 
cases —and we acknowledge that 
there have been some marked excep- 
tions — the work abroad can be best 
strengthened by refusing to send out 
partially trained and equipped men 
and women. Foreign work is so 
many-sided and the demands upon 
the missionary are so multitudinous 
and exacting, that even the best 
equipped are constantly compelled to 
acknowledge their insufficiency for it 
all. It has been demonstrated upon 
the field (and the missionaries there 
are in hearty accord with the idea), 
that the work demands only the 
best trained men and women of broad 
culture, thorough mental discipline, 
and genuine Christian experience. 


All this preparation can but come 
to naught if underneath it all there is 
not a passion, born of the Spirit, to 
make Jesus Christ known to men. 
Without a conscious oneness with 
Christ in his purpose to redeem the 
world, and a willingness to share his 


14 


burdens, and even to be partakers 
with him in his sufferings and death, 
intellectual culture can accomplish 
little. We must have men and 
women moved by the one mighty im- 
pulse to make Jesus Christ known to 
the world. If this is lacking, noth- 
ing is sufficient. 





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